Archive for the ‘Missional Living’ Category
Posted on February 10, 2010 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Italy
This was the first time that I have visited Milan and Turino. One thing that we have been talking about as we have traveled south are the similarities and differences of the different cities.
We started our journey in Denmark and now we are in France after visits in Germany and Italy.
We have noticed several things. One particularly obvious thing for me is the language. It was quite amazing in Denmark at the level of English the Danes could speak. As we went to some more diverse areas of the city where immigrants lived we would find some language challenges but when we approached Danish people they usually did very well in English. I still believe long term workers there would need to learn the language to get into the heart language of the people but for a strategic short term teams then the language issues there could be less of a barrier.
As we moved into Hamburg and Berlin we noticed a more diverse culture and less people who could speak English but usually you could get around and talk to people at some level.
When we moved into Italy and France much of this seemed to change for us. I have countless times tried talking to the people in Italy and France in Spanish when they could not understand English. I usually do well at making mistakes in language situations. Some say it is a gift, or a curse. grin.
Two things that stick out to me apart from language issues.
No matter where we have gone as we have talked with nationals and people ministering cross culturally in these areas the consensus is that less than 2 percent of the people are evangelical.
The second part is no matter how hard we try we cannot be cool enough to make it work here. It is a God thing! Only the Lord can open up the hearts of the people here. I pray He will use us on this trip. I pray the Lord will use churches like The Village to engage Europe. I pray for all of my fellow workers in Europe who are day in and day out living out there lives here and dying to self. I know the Lord is faithful and He alone will sustain you and give you opportunities.
Posted on February 1, 2010 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Cross Cultural Church Planting Assessments, part five
I am in cold and snowy Copenhagen, Denmark. I am not complaining. I actually like it. I really think I am made for this climate. It is actually a remarkable place. I have always been fascinated with the Nordic countries.
I arrived this afternoon and toured the city a bit with a guy who will be moving here soon. We are preparing for the group from The Village Church to come tomorrow. We will be looking around the next few days here. Tomorrow we will be meeting with a local church planter and talking to him about his church plant, the Danish worldview.
I wanted to finish the list I have put together on some competencies that I feel are necessary for cross cultural workers. Each time I venture into a new city or culture I am reminded how important these competencies are. Here you go. Stay tuned this week for more post on our trip.
Initiator – The ability to start something from nothing.
Connected to a local sending church – Relationship to the local church (connected) that sent you. I am a big Acts 13 fan! Cross cultural workers need the support from their home church.
A Developer of People – The ability to help develop new believers into mature followers and future leaders.
Flexibility – The ability to have plans changed that are beyond your control and turn it into a win.
Networking Capabilities – The realization that you cannot do it alone and that you need to be able to discover and partner with various people, networks and organizations.
Posted on December 11, 2009 - by Larry - 1 Comment
Dependence
Today I am writing from Ukraine. This is my first time here. Though it is not extremely far from Southwest Germany it is a very different culture and way of life here.
I arrived yesterday at about 2:30 pm after about a one hour wait in line at passport control. It was already getting dark. Grey clouds. A little snowy. I have only met one person from the Ukraine that speaks English. Even the words on the signs are hard to read. The words are in Cyrillic. I was able to guess at some of the letters since they reminded me of Greek.
I had dinner with some workers who live here and then I was dropped off at the hotel. Again, no one that I tried talking to spoke English.
- I do not speak Russian
- I have never been to the city
- Signs are all in Ukrainian and I do not recognize the letters.
- Not many English speakers
- Dark when I arrived
- In a hotel not knowing anyone
What do you do?
Are there some “first things” you do when you arrive to a new place?
It hit me this morning again. I hate that I must be reminded of this so much.
Being here reminded me of the total dependence upon the Lord that we must have daily on the field.
More on this city and some things I am learning later but this post is about something that should be an automatic for me. We need to be dependent on the Lord. There is something about going to a foreign place and not knowing how to do anything that makes you stick pretty close to the Lord. It does not have to be this way. I need to daily depend on the Lord regardless of where I land. Sure there are some “first things” that I need to do when I arrive in a new place that can help me learn the city and culture but the realization is that I need to depend upon the Lord.
What do you do when you land in a new place?
Posted on November 20, 2009 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Tres Amigos, part 2
On my last post I talked about three of my friends here in Europe that really teach me a lot by just hanging around them. I hope you can learn from them as well as I tell a little more about the way they live their life.
They are spiritual conversationalists – They get into spiritual conversations early on. They seldom wait for several months to get into these conversations. They have an urgency about them that is important. They have learned from past experiences that they need to get into these conversations earlier rather than later. The bible is a natural framework for their conversations. They know how to tell story. They know how to give a timely bible reference. They know how to apply scripture. They do not do is in an unnatural way. They have a keen sense of timing that I believes comes from being led by the Holy Spirit. What really amazes me is that these guys can do this in several languages.
They are not always the hero of their story – These guys are not afraid of talking about their failures and mistakes. They are transparent. They are people on a real spiritual journey not afraid to tell about what the Lord is teaching them in their lives. They exude a sense of humility about them that is contagious.
They believe in the importance of prayer – Prayer is not just several times a day in a quiet place. Prayer is an on-going conversation for them. As you are talking rather deeply and sharing life with one another it is quiet common that they will pray for you as you talk. Rarely do these guys leave you without either saying “ how can I pray for you” or they simply pray for you before you depart. They also have a sense of touch. If the timing is appropriate they will put their hand on my shoulder and say their prayer over me. I think we often downplay the importance of touch in our ministry. Have you ever studied how our Lord Jesus used “touch” in his ministry?
More soon.
Posted on November 18, 2009 - by Larry - 3 Comments
Tres Amigos
I am thinking of three friends here in Europe who really exemplify what it means to live missionally in a cross culture setting. My next couple of posts will be devoted to these guys. Now if you know who I am talking about you are not allowed to blurt out their names. I cannot name them due to security reasons but I hope if they read this they will be encouraged for they make a tremendous impact not only on my life but on the life of many others.
Thank you guys for helping me live life to the fullest. Think you for modeling for me how to live my life as salt and light in this world.
I have seen these traits as they have talked with me. I have also seen these as they talk with people they meet for the first time. It can be followers of Jesus or not yet followers or Jesus. They tend to treat people the same. To me they know instinctively how to live missionally.
Here are several things I am learning from them.
They are Fully Engaged – I am the only one they are talking to. I get the sense that I am the most important thing they are doing at that time. They give full attention to the conversation. They are not multi – tasking. They are looking me in the eye. They are not looking for other people to talk to in the crowd. They are asking questions. They are fully engaged in our time together. They are not looking at their watch. They are not looking forward to the next thing. They are living in the present. I wish I could be more like that.
They ask Open-ended questions – When you talk to these guys they are not asking you simple “yes and no” questions. They ask open-ended questions. You cannot help but go deep in conversations. You are talking deeper than news, sports and weather. Though at times we do talk about Sports and news. We only talk about weather as it may interfere in our running or other outdoor activities. The point here is that you are getting to core questions that you have to think about and have an opinion about.
Posted on November 16, 2009 - by Larry - 1 Comment
First steps in a new culture
This weekend we had some dear supporters come in for a visit for the weekend. It was such a refreshment and encouragement for us to have them around for a few days and to show them our life here. Plus we got to see a pretty cool castle in the middle of a rain storm. Made us feel we were back in the day.
Inevitably when we talk to people about our life here the question comes up about how are we received in this European context? What are some important first steps?
Let me tell you a little about my experience. First of all, I grew up in the South. I planted and pastored churches in the South. After about eight years of church planting, I joined the staff of a large denominational mission agency for North America in the area of church planter assessment.
In 1999, I began traveling a lot outside the South, and my worldview changed immensely. (I was never able to get rid of the Southern accent though.)
When the Lord began to lead us toward overseas missions, I started asking myself how can I make a difference there? I am just a normal American guy who has a heart for God and, I want to follow Him and tell others about Jesus. How would I be received in another country?
I remember that we talked about this as a family before we moved to Madrid in 2001. We felt there were several things that would help us connect with the culture there – but we knew that being an American would not be one of them. We knew many people have their own ideas about what being American means and often they are not positive.
As we entered into this new culture, we always tried to be aware of three things. We tried to model and teach this to our children. I think these can apply rather you are living overseas or if you are simply visiting as a tourist. Here they are.
1. To make eye contact and smile. Check out this really good post on making friends.
2. To try our best to speak the language of our new culture – to make an effort, even if it was only a word or two. People appreciate that, even if it is incorrect grammatically. Obviously the longer we lived there our friend’s expectation of our language ability grew so this means we have to be constant students of the language.
3. To be humble. I must admit being humble was not a hard thing to do once I tried number two on the list; 5-year-olds would remind me how badly I spoke! But many people naturally think Americans are loud and arrogant. We wanted to break that stereotype and at the same time reflect the attitude of Christ.
Why are these three things important?
What would you add to the list?
Posted on November 11, 2009 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Margins
I like this verse from the Apostle Paul.
making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:16
When I think of Phillip who was told by the Lord to go south on the dessert road he did not know what opportunities he would have. We see in scripture that he obeyed and went south and as a result the Lord directed him to a chariot with an Ethiopian official. He is able to help the guy understand scriptures and was invited in to share the Gospel. He made the most of the opportunity.
I also think of Levi (later known as Matthew). We see in scripture where he was busy doing the tax collecting thing and Jesus came up and said come and follow me. He immediately got up, left what he was doing and followed Jesus. Again, I see an opportunity and I see a person making the most of it.
I think when we are faced with an opportunity from the Lord there is a sense of us needing to obey that leading. However, I know how I live. I know that I live pretty closely to my calendar and schedule. I am guilty of putting one thing on top of another.
This is why I am writing about margins. We need to have some margins in our life in order to have time for those special moments that the Lord orchestrates or presents to us. I find when I live without margins that I am simply not as open to interruptions. But if I can plan some margin in my day then I often find the Lord giving me some unique ministry opportunities that often lead to spiritual conversations.
When I find myself going from one place to another then I often do not have time to talk with the store clerk or person on the street, etc. I do not see many days where my calendar is completely blank but I am trying to do better at the way I schedule my day.
more soon.
Posted on November 9, 2009 - by Larry - 4 Comments
El Presente
This morning I was enjoying a nice run in the cold and in the rain. A average day in the Forest.
When I do not run with other guys I normally do the ipod thing and run with Spanish music.
Don’t ask me why. It makes me run fast. Not really.
This morning I was listening to Julietta Venegas and her relatively new song El Presente.
I love the lyrics and one line grabs my attention.
It says: “El presente es lo unico que tengo” which translated by me means: “The present is all we have”. As followers of Jesus we do have a future hope.
But I also know that I sometimes live my life in the past thinking back to the things I could have done, should have done or hyper evaluating my life or just simply get marred down in the past.
However, the greater tendency for me is to think about the future. What lies ahead? Where will I live? What will I do? Where will I go visit? What will our ministry be like next year? etc..
What I have found and was reminded of in a weird sort of way this morning on my run is that I need to do better at living in the present. I need to enjoy the moment. One of my huge take aways by living in Spain was that I think they do a great job of living in the present. Whatever they may be doing at the time is the most important thing. Most other things can wait.
But me, I am always thinking of what is next? My next appointment. My next phone call to make or tweet to write or facebook status update to post. I think the implications for me are significant. It enriches my marriage, my parenting and my friendships to live this way.
I also believe from a missional perspective that if I live my life in the present then I am more likely to be tuned in when the Holy Spirit leads and guides me to be in conversation with someone or to go to this place or do this thing instead of always thinking of the next big thing.
When I am always thinking ahead I rarely leave enough margins in my life to have a divine appointment. But that is another post in the future. smile.
More soon.
Posted on September 18, 2009 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Connecting Flight
Sitting here in the Amsterdam airport waiting on my plane. I only have about 4 more hours til take off. This is the point of arrival for us when we moved to Spain. Our connecting flight to Madrid was from here. Many memories of entering a new culture here. I remember two things rather vividly.
Most people here talk at least three languages. I am amazed at the Dutch. They are great at languages.
The second thing I remember is the playground they have for children. It was a lifesaver for our 6 year old at the time. I do not remember the Starbucks being here but I am thankful for it today. smile.
I was thinking on my flight up here about something that Roger Greenway said in one of my classes some years ago at Trinity. It was a class on urban missiology. He was asked about what are the important strategy steps to understand a city and develop a church planting strategy for that city. He gave us 20 steps but he said the most important is to know that you must wear out two pieces of leather;
your shoes
your bible
May that be so this week as we travel.
Posted on February 5, 2009 - by Larry - 0 Comments
a new type of missionary
Paris. Athens. Budapest. Frankfurt. Rome. Madrid. Vienna. Stockholm. Basel.
The urban centers of Europe are the new frontier of missions.
Stockbroker. Artist. Lawyer. Electrician. Professor. Programmer.
And these are its missionaries.
While Europe doesn’t often spring to Americans’ minds when they hear the word “missions,” the spiritual need in the region is overwhelming. Less than 2 percent of the population of most European countries is known to follow Christ.
In societies so numbed to the institutional church, cultural rituals and historical Christendom, being a “missionary” often calls for something totally different than the traditional face of North American missions.
What if the most effective missions meant simply living life with purpose among the peoples of Europe, working in a normal job, building friendships with co-workers and neighbors?
What if churches in the United States actively participated in sending out their best church members, not as missionaries, but simply as themselves? What if churches prayed and dreamed with those workers about how to live their lives as salt and light in their new European hometowns? What if churches took back – and took full advantage of – their role in the Great Commission?
Isn’t that what it’s supposed to be about anyway?
check out – www.skybridgecommunity.net
The above post was written by a member of the Skybridge Community and currently lives in Europe.
